[PREDICTIONS] What’s Next for IT

As industry veterans in the enterprise software and professional services business, the notion of “what’s next” in technology is continually being discussed, especially now that spending is resuming.

I recently attended a Gartner Group presentation entitled Top Predictions for 2011 and Beyond, expertly presented by Dan Plummer. It’s obvious now that technology is tied to value, and the ability to create it through technology is rooted in the CIO’s performance. I submit, based on the points made below, that skills will be rooted in the Social Sciences, as opposed to quantitative analysis and definition around ROIs.

At a high level, here are some of Gartner’s top predictions.  Be sure to read the detailed explanation of each here.

1. A G20 nation’s critical infrastructure will be disrupted and damaged by on-line sabotage.

2. New revenue generated each year by IT will determine the annual compensation of most new global 2000 CIOs.

3. Information-smart businesses will increase reorganized IT spending per head by 60%.

4. Tools and automation will eliminate 25% of labor hours associated with IT services.

• The IT services industry will transfer from craftsman to industrialized model.
• Tools and automation improve productivity and lower overall cost of IT.
• Some basic work functions and related jobs will disappear or will be reduced in scope.
• IT services will invest in developing automation – if not, will be relegated to commodity staff-augmentation status.

5. Most external assessments of enterprise value and viability will include explicit analysis of IT assets and capabilities.

6. 80% of enterprises using external cloud services will demand independent certification that providers can restore operations and data.

7. 20% of non-IT Global 500 companies will be cloud service providers.

8. Companies will generate 50% of web sales via their social presence and mobile applications.

9. By 2014 – 90% of organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices.

10. By 2013 – 80% of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.

11. By 2015 – 10% of your on-line “friends” will be non-human.

Note the predicted trends in mobile computing and cloud services.  Regarding the latter, it’s time for cloud services to come of age; prediction #6 is all but guaranteed, especially after recent high-visibility outages by Tumblr and Skype.

Also note social platforms: over the next few years, it won’t be about saying you’re on them.  Web sales and brand recognition will be about using these tools well.

From where we sit – as specialists in PeopleSoft’s ALM suite (which includes IT Asset Management (ITAM) functionality – #5 is spot on.  We talk to clients regularly who want the most possible intelligence about their enterprise assets, and IT is no exception.  Poorly-utilized (or unutilized) IT assets diminish enterprise value, and we have clients already asking us to help them get a handle on what they have deployed in the field and how it’s being used.  The intelligence is getting that granular and will only continue to do so.

What do you think?  Agree?  Disagree?  See something different?  We’d love to hear your 2011 IT predictions in the comments.

###

MIPRO Consulting is a nationally-recognized consulting firm specializing in PeopleSoft Enterprise (particularly Enterprise Asset Management) and Business Intelligence. You’re reading MIPRO Unfiltered, its blog. If you’d like to contact MIPRO, email is a great place to start, or you can easily jump over to its main website. If you’d like to see what MIPRO offers via Twitter or Facebook, we’d love to have you.

More business posts.